Welcome to Olivia Mia's Blog!: Week Five through Seven

We have been a bit behind in our blogging, largely to do with the massive amount of activity going on at our household! We knew that Olivia's arrival was going to generate some attention but nevertheless, we have been enormously overwhelmed by what has actually occurred. We are so blessed to have such an incredible group of family and friends - it should be no surprise to us but we continue to be in awe of the sheer delight and generosity that has been demonstrated in the cross country flights, multi-hour drives, daily phone calls and visits, ridiculously generous gifts, and parties that have been thrown to welcome Olivia. The past three weeks have been especially eventful.

The second weekend of the month brought a visit from Uncle Nick, all the way from San Francisco! Olivia had a Saturday with the boys (daddy, Nick and Paul) while her mom enjoyed some time to herself in honor of Mother's Day (thank you so everyone who so generously recognized Karen's first mother's day!) On the heels of Nick's departure we welcomed a houseful for celebration of Olivia's baptism. Karen's parents, Melissa and Peter arrived, as did all of our extended family - the Reale's (all the way from San Diego!), Alicia and her mom (PA), Beth (Richmond), the Farley family (NYC). Of course (almost) all of our local family was here for the festivities as well - Joel's parents, the Hepps, Uncle Gaby, Paul, the Moseley's and the Takata/Wallers (we missed the Helmreichs who were on a trip to FL!) As Liesl stated, Olivia already has her church manners and she was very alert and participative in the ceremony. Aunt Melissa and Uncle Gaby are Olivia's godparents (lucky little girl!) and our mom's created a family feast complete with lumpia, flan, baked ziti and sausage and peppers to enjoy following the ceremony! Olivia demonstrated that she is indeed going to be a party girl, refusing to go up for a nap so that she could enjoy the full festivities.

We were lucky enough the hold on to the Reales for a few extra days of visiting which then led into party Saturday! Olivia's first Memorial Day weekend was kicked off with two celebrations. Our friends at Cross Fit Old Town threw us a joint shower (with Melanie and Jason, expecting at the end of the month) in the morning, and Erin, Beth, and Lori hosted a Sip & See for Olivia in the afternoon. The Sip & See even had Texas BBQ in honor of Olivia's birth state! Our friends think of everything...It was a fabulous set of events and the whole Angeles family had a blast.

Other remarkable things across the last three weeks - Olivia had her first play date (with Vera Hinshaw, born 1/20/08), she weathered her two month shots (she may have handled it better than Karen), began a fabulous trend of sleeping through the night (YES!), has found her hands and is grasping and batting at toys. She has also began to try to hold her bottle and she LOVES to stand up (see pictures). She is a very assertive little one - and SO happy!

Lots of pictures to enjoy below.

Weeks Nine and Ten: